Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers - Catching Base Runners

Which 2007 Catchers

Catch Thieves?

(Minimum 500 innings caught in 2007)

By Chuck Rosciam

The King of Catching Thieves, Ivan Rodsriguez, was dethroned by the Cardinals' Yadier Molina who posted a 54% nab rate. His 0.24 Stolen Bases Allowed per 9 innings (SB/9) in 2007 is a demonstration of his power at shutting down the running game. He caught 54% of all would-be base stealers and is, undoubtedly, the very best among those backstops who caught 500 or more innings this year.

Only Joe Mauer (MIN), Kenji Johjima (SEA) and David Ross (CIN) even came close to Yadier's SB/9 rate. Mauer, the American League Batting Champion in 2006, allowed just .243 SB's per 9 innings, a fraction behind Yadier.

There were 4 catchers who had a CS Rate of 40% or better out of the 107 backstops that caught this year. Only 32 of them caught 500+ innings and just 12 had 1000+ innings. Twenty-nine caught 50% or more of their team's games (81+) and 12 caught 120 or more games, the leader being Russ Martin (LAN) who caught 145 games (89%).

Using the minimum of 500+ innings caught, here are the best of 2007 at catching thieves:

Take a look at the following chart. It lists the runners each catcher caught stealing (CS), the stolen bases attempted (SBA), the stolen bases (SB) while he was behind the plate, the caught stealing percentage (CS%), and the stolen bases allowed per 9 innings (SB/9) all ranked at CS%.

Catcher	Team	INN	G	SB	CS	SBA	CS%	SB/9 Inn
Yadier Molina	STL	861.3	107	23	27	50	0.5400	0.240
Joe Mauer	MIN	777.7	91	21	24	45	0.5333	0.243
Kenji Johjima	SEA	1106.7	133	46	40	86	0.4651	0.374
David Ross	CIN	837.3	108	36	25	61	0.4098	0.387
Gerald Laird	TEX	987.3	119	59	39	98	0.3980	0.538
Chris Snyder	ARI	891.3	103	52	29	81	0.3580	0.525
Russ Martin	LAN	1254.0	145	82	41	123	0.3333	0.589
Miguel Olivo	FLA	990.3	119	51	25	76	0.3289	0.463
Victor Martinez	CLE	1042.7	121	70	33	103	0.3204	0.604
Carlos Ruiz	PHI	912.7	111	57	26	83	0.3133	0.562
Brian Schneider	WAS	1051.3	122	53	24	77	0.3117	0.454
Ivan Rodriguez	DET	1052.7	127	47	21	68	0.3088	0.402
Bengie Molina	SFN	1104.0	129	53	23	76	0.3026	0.432
Dioner Navarro	TBA	956.3	112	71	30	101	0.2970	0.668
Ronnie Paulino	PIT	1088.0	129	74	27	101	0.2673	0.612
Brad Ausmus	HOU	906.7	114	47	17	64	0.2656	0.467
A.J. Pierzynski	CHA	1058.0	130	62	20	82	0.2439	0.527
Jason Varitek	BOS	1064.0	125	63	20	83	0.2410	0.533
Jorge Posada	NYA	1111.3	138	102	32	134	0.2388	0.826
Mike Napoli	LAA	598.7	75	49	15	64	0.2344	0.737
Paul LoDuca	NYM	974.0	113	72	22	94	0.2340	0.665
Ramon Hernandez	BAL	855.0	104	68	20	88	0.2273	0.716
Miguel Montero	ARI	510.7	73	35	10	45	0.2222	0.617
John Buck	KCA	924.3	112	44	12	56	0.2143	0.428
Brian McCann	ATL	1139.0	132	70	19	89	0.2135	0.553
Yorvit Torrealba	COL	935.3	112	61	15	76	0.1974	0.587
Kurt Suzuki	OAK	539.0	66	29	7	36	0.1944	0.484
Michael Barrett	SDN	768.0	95	72	14	86	0.1628	0.844
Jason Kendall	OAK-CHN	1146.0	130	111	20	131	0.1527	0.872
Gregg Zaun	TOR	838.3	103	73	13	86	0.1512	0.784
Johnny Estrada	MIL	961.0	113	73	11	84	0.1310	0.684
Josh Bard	SDN	927.3	108	121	10	131	0.0763	1.174